Organization

Reference person

Ali Rashidi

email: ali.rashidi@folkuniversitetet.se

phone: 018 68 00 60

Description

Folkuniversitetet first emerged as a national organization in 1942, but its origins can be traced back to 1917 and the creation of an association for the development of a people’s university. By the 1930’s, university students and teachers were organising evening courses and lectures for people lacking formal qualifications. In 1947, Folkuniversitetet was established as a state supported organisation within adult education, an open university in the true sense of the word. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Folkuniversitetet became a leading actor in lifelong learning in Sweden.

Folkuniversitetet consists of five legally independent trusts (regional offices) with a total of over forty local branches throughout Sweden. The national office is located in Stockholm. Every year, Folkuniversitetet welcomes over 140,000 students to a variety of lectures, short courses or full-time study programs with duration of six months to two years. Folkuniversitetet receives a certain degree of public financial support, but most activities are financed by course fees from private individuals, businesses and
organisations.

Folkuniversitetet employs around 400 teachers on a full-time basis and a further 7,000 part-time.

An administrative staff of some 500 people works with administration and development.

Folkuniversitetet offers a wide range of adult education, both initial and continuous Vocational education and training, secondary education and labour market training.. The pedagogical approach is based on the idea of imparting knowledge which is of
immediate practical use to our students. A large part of the training offered by Folkuniversitetet targets people who need new knowledge and skills to apply in professional and/or labour market contexts. The theoretical knowledge and practical experience of employed teachers are well-suited to current requirements. Government services, public authorities and the business sector also turn to Folkuniversitetet for assistance with specialized training courses.

International involvement Folkuniversitetet runs a considerable number of internationally oriented activities both in Sweden and abroad. Examples of this include our extensive range of training courses in schools in Europe, and various projects with an international focus. Through cooperation with other international l institutes, Folkuniversitetet offer the opportunity to combine studies in Sweden with studies abroad. Folkuniversitetet has been an active partner in LLP-programs with a waste network in EU-countries

Quality Assurance in VET
Folkuniversitetet Uppsala, as one of the educational organisations in Folkuniversitetet Sweden, has been certified according to ISO 9001:2000. The ISO-quality certificate includes all training processes at Folkuniversitetet, also VET. During 2009-2011,
Folkuniversitetet initiated a Leonardo da Vinci project (TOI) to adapt existing QA-system in VET at provider’s level to CQAF; there is still a long way to go. The proposed project “CQAFVET - provider model” addresses the above problem. The overall objective is adaptation of an existing QA model in VET to the standards and criteria of CQAF. The proposed project aims to adapt the Swedish QA-model, which is based on ISO 9001-2000 at Folkuniversitetet Uppsala, to CQAF. The elaborated QA model “CQAF-VET” has been endorsed by Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education and will be tested at national level during 2011-2013.

The role of Folkuniversitetet in the project will be as a National association for VET and as VET-provider together with supporting partners to design and deliver seminars for VET-institutes, to provide information findings from the report practices and policies of elaborated final product at VET-institutes. Further, it will together with supporting partners to promote and actively participate in arranging a final conference to disseminate and valorise results of all the work packages to a wide range of stakeholders, policy makers and practitioners.